Dusk fell on the Imperial Highway apartment as Saia Holani scrambled to find a spare lamp, having handed off his own to a neighbor in need. Four of his children romped through the darkened living room, still in their Sunday best, as his wife offered pink wedges of watermelon to guests.

“No Tongan is here to get rich,” Holani had said earlier, outside the humble chapel of the Lennox Tongan United Methodist Church. “Even the smallest thing — we give.”